Network societies emerged quickly after the Internet technology became popular. These network societies are usually constructed via at least one network server which manages the relations of society members for each society. In recent years, such a network server is usually called Social Network Server (SNS) and the combination of members and their relations is called social network.
Social network usually considers each person as a node. A node may have associations with other node(s) in the social network. Association is typically represented by a line linking two nodes. Several metrics can be derived from a social network having multiple nodes and lines. Relation Degree is the simplest metric for determining how close two nodes are. Two nodes are defined to have first-degree relation if there is a line linking the two nodes. In existing applications, two nodes having first-degree relation may indicate that they can contact with each other by certain communication method, such as telephone, e-mail, instant message, peer-to-peer streaming and the like. Two nodes having second-degree relation if from one node there can be found a path passing only two lines to the other node. Two nodes having degree order larger then first-degree may suggest that the corresponding two persons did not know each other but they did have certain relationship between them.
Before providing various applications based on the social network, certain platforms should be setup to gather users and make associations among them. Recent years, websites are a kind of popular platform to make up social networks. Users use their web browser to visit websites and join them as member. During the web activities, such as making and storing friend contact list in the websites, node associations can be made up and the social network of the websites can be constructed.
To provide specific topics, such as dating and chatting, the online social network services enable users having degree order larger than first-degree to connect with each other. In order to avoid offending user privacy, there are rules of selecting to whom one can connect based on certain metric(s) such as the Relation Degree mentioned above. Though such a selection may facilitate the social network management and lower the risk of exposing user privacy in certain level, problem is still not solved. That is, however the rules are defined, looser rules may still have risk of exposing user privacy while stricter rules still limit the interaction of its social network.
Besides the problem mentioned above, the establishment of current social network has other problems. For example, users usually need to react with the network societies via a computer or a compatible device and the candidates of the network society member are usually computer men. These all limit the growth of the social network.
Compared with the virtually existed network society, societies in real world have more trust between their members since members may already be familiar and contact with each other. Besides, the population of real world societies is far bigger then the candidates of network society members. Hence, if Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) can be used to organize societies in real world and provide useful services, large business may be derived.
Therefore, this invention provides a complimentary society association scenario and method to assist the growth of social network while providing satisfied user privacy. The preferable embodiment shows that the invention enables the society association to take place in everywhere and in everyday life. Based on the invention, various innovative online social services can be derived since network societies can be expended to every person equipped with mobile device.
As mentioned previously, to provide specific topics, such as dating and chatting, the online social network services may enable users to connect with whom they never know before. There are rules of selecting with whom one can contact and the rules are predefined by the online social network services. However the rules are defined, looser rules may still have risk of exposing user privacy while stricter rules still limit the interaction of its social network.
In order to solve such problems, Yahoo Incorporation issued a patent application with Publication Number 2006/0184997. The application mentions that:
“However, potential new users may be reluctant to join an online service and/or to respond to a request to participate with another member of the online service not known to the user. An invitation from a known contact may help an invitee feel more comfortable about joining the service. However, even an invitee may be reluctant to join before seeing a sample of the service.”
“To build trust quickly, information about an inviter can be provided to the invitee. For example, the invitee may be allowed to temporarily access content from the inviter's personal web page. The content may include the inviter's web log, a collection of photos, a list of recommended restaurants, and/or other content relevant to the inviter.”
That is, Yahoo incorporation proposed that, in order to gain the invitee's trust, inviter can first invite the invitee to visit his personal information.
Yahoo's patent application hopes that they can, based on looser rules, combine an invitation method with inviter's personal information to gain trust during society association. Such a method solves the problems in certain level; however, the commonly existing “trust” problem among the online social service is further emphasized by this patent application.
There is another US patent with Publication No. 2005/0250552 disclosed by Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT), in which portable communication devices have been introduced, such as Bluetooth enabled cellular phones, to communicate with and identify like devices that are nearby, and send notification messages to a remote server. When a notification message is received at the server identifying two devices that have come within range of one another, the server compares the profile data associated with each of the two identified devices and facilitates communications between the devices when appropriate.
Looking into more details about MIT's application, it basically solves the problem of mobility and enables the social network associations to be expended to every person equipped with mobile device. However, it does not provide too much solution in security problem since it uses the user's account information as the token to exchange user's information. As stated in MIT's application, when a mobile devices sending its notification message to invite another mobile device to join a specific topic, the notification message sent from the device to the server includes not only its own ID value (the Requester ID) but also the ID value of the mobile device being invited (the Identified ID). Since a mobile device in MIT's application can easily get other mobile device's ID value, it may hack the system in several ways, such as pretending to be other mobile device by responding other mobile device's ID value to the server instead of its own ID value.